Gender Identity and the Military - Transgender, Transsexual, and Intersex Identified Individuals in the U.S. Armed Forces

May 1, 2007

Tarynn M. Witten

Palm Center Whitepaper

Dr. Witten, PhD, MSW, FGSA is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow at the TranScience Research Institute in Richmond, Virginia.

This study reviews earlier research concluding that transsexuals can be a risk to military effectiveness, in part because their transformations entail higher-than-average anxiety and depression. Click here for a pdf version.

Dr. Witten, PhD, MSW, FGSA is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow at the TranScience Research Institute in Richmond, Virginia.
This study reviews earlier research concluding that transsexuals can be a risk to military effectiveness, in part because their transformations entail higher-than-average anxiety and depression. Click here for a pdf version.

Myths and Facts

Research on openly gay service is extensive, and includes over half a century of evidence gathered by independent researchers and the U.S. military itself, as well as the study of the experience of foreign militaries. The U.S. military’s own researchers have consistently found that openly gay service does not undermine cohesion, and the military has repeatedly sought to condemn or suppress these conclusions when they emerged. Yet no research has ever shown that open homosexuality impairs military readiness.